North Georgia Fishing Report: June 12, 2014

I hope everyone has a great weekend celebrating Father’s Day. I’ll bet all of you have thought about the perfect gift for your fathers: a day on the lake or stream, a gift card to your favorite tackle shop, that new rod you’ve been eyeing since February, a waterproof/drop-resistant camera to replace the one you submerged last spring, a guided trip, or even a lifetime license.

Redbreast caught at Unicoi Lake.

Father’s Day means that spring is gone. We north Georgia anglers should therefore switch our techniques to “full summer mode” to adapt with our target species’ emerging summer patterns. Follow the shadows to river fishing success. Stream targets such as trout and bass are much more cooperative early and late, and are sulking when the midday sun aims brightly at low-flowing, crystal clear waters, exposing them to potential predators. Many of our most popular reservoir targets, like bass, stripers, hybrids, and walleye are now moving off the bank to find preferred water temperatures at greater depths, so we’ll start watching for thermoclines, and dust off our saved GPS coordinates for deep structure.

The bad news is that spring is history, along with its shallow water action. The good news is that our intended prey is starting to get bunched up in either time, space, or both. Fishing at the right time of day, in the right spot, can lead to some catches that could meet or exceed our best days in April!

River report – Volfish and Dredger flogged a river on Saturday afternoon for bass and caught very few until the last hour of daylight. A decent dusk bite happened, mainly on white stealth bombers plopped down hard on the cast, twitched once, and then allowed to dead drift for an eternity (10-20 feet). The fish apparently came out to play as the shadows fell across the river channel. Poppers with too much action failed inspection, while the dead-drifted ones passed.

Wild trout – Dredger passed some inspections and failed others when he bluelined last Friday after work. The low, clear water gave the little wild rainbows a big advantage. He watched as they inspected and refused his #14 light cahill on 4X. So he switched to a #16 elk hair caddis on 5x tippet and did okay until the growing shadows hid his fly from sight. He then switched to a brightly posted parachute adams and did fine til quitting time. He’s blaming the shadows for his caddis disappearance, while his fishing buddies blamed his overabundance of birthdays…